


Baelor

by hallieCB3



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Game of Thrones Season 1, Game of Thrones withdrawals, Gen, Inspired by Game of Thrones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 21:31:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11998353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hallieCB3/pseuds/hallieCB3
Summary: He prayed to the Old Gods in his final moments and thought of what it is and what should never be.





	Baelor

He looked again at the Baelor statue, and the small figure was gone. He did truly hope Yoren understood his hint and took his young girl to safety, if there was any safety left in the realm.

On his knees, he started praying to the Old Gods, while his ears were tormented by the screams of his older daughter, asking them to stop his execution.

He prayed for his family, for his wife, the love he found after the circumstances made him stand as Lord of Winterfell and marry the fiancée of his murdered older brother. He prayed for his two daughters, one left at the mercy of the enemies of the Starks, the Lannisters, and the other running away from them. He prayed for his two younger sons, one too young to understand why the turmoil has reached their Northern holds and the other stricken by misfortune being left cripple just because he happened to witness the evidence of betrayal towards his King.

He prayed for his older son, the Young Wolf, now entangled in this fight he wasn't supposed to be fighting. He could see in some way a little bit of history repeating on his son, as it did in himself, when at a young age he had to take over Winterfell and the North to fight with his best friend against the tyranny of a Mad King and above all, to bring back his sister from the hands of Rhaegar Targaryen.

And he did. He brought back the remains of his sister to be buried in the family crypt, along with a promise and a baby. He allowed his honor to be tainted by the supposed fact he had fathered a bastard with an unknown woman to keep his word to his dying sister to protect her child.

Only the Old Gods of the Forest knew how he did struggle when Robert went to pay his respects to the memory of Lyanna Stark whilst saying that the Targaryens were gone. And then, when the King replied that not all of them were, when he was supposed to think of the two remaining young Targaryens across the Narrow Sea, he couldn't help but think of the boy standing behind his trueborn sons, the one he prayed for every single night that his physical features resembled more his Stark heritage than his Targaryen lineage to ensure his survival. The one who, instead of being as far as he could get him from Kings Landing, should have been the one sitting on that Iron Throne.

He briefly remembered his words to Renly Baratheon, the message he sent to Stannis, his own words aloud in front of everyone acknowledging Joffrey Baratheon as his true King. He had lied to all of them. He knew the truth. The true King of the Seven Kingdoms had just sworn his life away to the Night's Watch. Unbeknownst to him, he was not Jon Snow. He was Aegon Targaryen, trueborn son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. The brooding boy he would never see again, to tell him the truth of his origins, as he promised when they parted ways and said goodbye. "You're a Stark. You might not have my name, but you have my blood." he told him then. He made what he could to keep his promise to his beloved sister, but he would not be able to keep his promise to her son.

He never spoke during all those years about his late sister. His children would ask him questions about her, but he would just avoid the topic or keep silent about it. Everyone just implied that he was still going through the pain of her death. And yet, it was partly true. It did hurt him that his true children were the ones questioning, when the one who should be asking about her was not even trying to do so, due to his condition of bastard feeling out of place. And yet, he was his mother's son, he could see it, he looked more a Stark than some of his own children. However, even when not visible to everyone else, he had the same melancholic disposition like his real father. He was even better fighting than Robb and Theon, like people would say about Rhaegar.

Part of him wished then he could go back in time to find out the truth of her sister's disposition towards Rhaegar to avoid all the suffering and war. Part of him wished he could have trusted Catelyn to tell her the truth about Jon. Part of him wished Rhaegar hadn't died at the Battle of the Trident, so he could live after the war with his wife and son.

But it was too late. He would not be able to tell him the truth. At least he was far from the grasp of those who would harm him if they knew the truth. If he had failed to protect the Targaryen girl from the murderous schemes of Robert and his Small Council, at least he had protected her nephew. And maybe it was better for him to ignore the truth. Like a whisper, he swore he could hear far, far away someone saying: "A Targaryen alone in the world is a terrible thing." Perhaps it was for the best for Jon Snow to know nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> As most of you, I'm going through Game of Thrones withdrawals so the best thing was to start again from the beginning re-watching Season 1 obviously with the added bonus to see this all in hindsight.


End file.
